The Balance of Payments (BOP) overall deficit recorded $351.2m in July/March of FY 2018/2019 mitigated largely by the overall surplus of $1.4bn in January/March 2019, according to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).
The CBE revealed that the current account deficit registered $7.6bn and the capital and financial account unfolded a net inflow of $7.8bn in the reporting period.
The services surplus surged by $1.9bn, to register $9.8bn against $ 7.8bn driven mainly by travel balance surplus increased to $7.3bn from $5.5bn and Suez Canal receipts rose by 2.8% to $4.3bn against $4.2bn. In addition, the increase in merchandise exports mitigated the rise in the trade deficit, as well as, the higher merchandise exports curbed the rise in the trade deficit.
The CBE highlighted that the unrequited current transfers registered a net inflow of $18.2bn. Investment income deficit recorded $5.8bn against $4.7bn, on the back of the rise in investment income payments by $1.2bn to $6.5bn, supported by the increase in profit transfers of foreign petroleum companies. On the other hand, investment income receipts scaled up to $720.1m against $624.7m, reflecting the rise in interest on Egyptians’deposits abroad and profit transfers of Egyptian companies branches abroad.
